Hands-on radiology: Five essential mobile apps to download right now
Convenience, ease-of-use, accurate information—these are a few of the characteristic that make many mobile apps essential tools in the digital era. As mobile technology becomes increasingly intertwined with nearly every aspect of our personal and professional lives, practitioners across the modern workforce—including radiologists—are using a diverse array of mobile apps to help perform their jobs more efficiently.
With this in mind, Health Imaging set out to find five of the best available apps that radiology students, radiologists and other medical professionals can download and begin using immediately to increase their knowledge and improve their practices.
Radiology Toolbox Pro
Downloaded nearly 70,000 times in 120 countries, this popular app boasts one of the largest collections of radiology resources ever assembled to assist the practicing radiologist and educate radiologists-in-training. Its extensive library of critical anatomy and diagnostic guidelines brings commonly used reference material directly to the user or, as one happy reviewer put it, “there is no faster way to get the information you need while interpreting a study—all at the touch of a button.”
Softcode Systems, Inc., iOS, $3.99.
Goodreader
This well-known app is essential to anyone who needs to read, organize and manage important PDFs on the go. Hailed by tech website Mashable as “a Swiss Army Knife of awesome!,” recent updates now allow users to extract and send individual pages of a PDF, merge entire documents and take electronic notes while reading. A must-have for tech-savvy radiologists and other medical professionals, the app also integrates with Dropbox, Google Drive and OneNote for document storage in the cloud.
Good.i.Reads, Inc., iOS, $4.99.
Radiopaedia
This wiki-based app bills itself as “the most beautiful and intuitive way to explore high quality medical imaging material anytime, anywhere.” While that might be a bit of hyperbole, with hundreds of cases and radiology quizzes there is no denying this app’s potential value to medical students, radiology residents and anyone else interested in learning more about the basics of radiological practice.
Radiopaedia Australia Pty Ltd., iOS, free (may require additional in-app purchases).
Trello
Not specific to the practice of radiology, this productivity app lets you and/or a team of contributors stay organized for seamless cooperation on complex tasks. Described as a “whiteboard with superpowers,” Trello allows users to make and keep track of to-do lists, comment on community projects and even assign tasks, all while automatically syncing and saving all that hard work to the cloud.
Fog Creek Software, Inc., iOS and Android, free.
Lung Cancer Screening Toolbox
Sleek and easy to use, this all-in-one lung cancer practice tool takes tediously referenced information such as the Lung-RADS system and other treatment guidelines and gives them a slick user-friendly makeover. The ability of radiologists to easily access and utilize resources like the Fleischner Society guidelines for incidental solid nodules and an integrated tool to calculate dates for follow-up studies lends support to the developers’ description of the app as “an indispensable utility for any healthcare provider in search of a convenient solution for streamlining the lung screening process.” Did we mention it’s free and with no ads?
Radiologiq, LLC, iOS, free.
Stay tuned for a full-length feature on the role of mobile apps in the practice of radiology in the summer 2015 issue of Health Imaging.
Digital Editor
With nearly a decade of experience in print and digital publishing, John serves as Content Marketing Manager. His professional skill set includes feature writing, content marketing and social media strategy. A graduate of The Ohio State University, John enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, along with a number of surprisingly mischievous indoor cacti.